Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na

Those who've been following my blog and/or talking to me in recent time will know that I was really looking forward to Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na. Last weekend I could not find the time to catch it. The paucity of time is also evident from the minuscule number of blog posts that I wrote last weekend. And it seemed to me that everyone on the face of this earth had already seen it within three days of its release. So I was worried I wouldn't find decent company to watch it in. Well, what do I know? I was wrong. I actually had a chance to watch it twice over, once on each day of the weekend, with two disjoint sets of friends.

Whenever my friends from school have asked me to join them for a movie that I'd already seen, I've said yes and gone ahead and watched everything from Devdas to Mithya with them for a second time. In spite of the fact that I did not enjoy Mithya when I watched it the first time round. Quite possibly I was in a really bad mood that day and not happy with the company I watched it in. Because I liked it when I watched it with my friend Aditi a second time.

This time, things were a little different. I'd already booked my tickets for Jaane Tu... for Sunday and Gullu wanted to watch it on Saturday. After some discussion, we settled for Hancock on Saturday. We had some trouble arriving at mutual consent on the show timing. In the course of this discussion, Gullu was constantly pleading with me to change my mind about watching Jaane Tu... twice. I obviously had to give in to all that eventually. I did. As Aditi said, by now I'm quite used to watching movies for a second time with this set of friends. So it was Gullu, Adi and me for Jaane Tu... on Saturday night. I think I would not have enjoyed Hancock as much as the repeat telecast of Jaane Tu...

Imran Khan is such a piece of eye candy! Looks wise, I think he brings together the best of Aamir Khan, Parvin Dabas and Jugal Hansraj. And not a bad actor at all.

Anyway, this is the first time I am writing a movie review. Be warned, in case you haven't seen this movie already and want to see it, this blog post may contain spoilers.

The situation in which they sing Kabhi Kabhi Aditi was hilariously disappointing. But it's an amazing song. It feels so happy inside my head. This entire movie was such a laugh riot. I don't think I have laughed this much since Hera Pheri. And I don't think I have felt such a close connection to the characters and the circumstances they are put into since My Best Friend's Wedding, which was ages ago. I could so well connect to Aditi (the female protagonist) and to everything she did or said throughout the movie. Everything, from her relationship with her brother, to her feelings for Jai, her personality in general, is so much like me. It's so much like a lot of us, I guess. That's the appeal of this movie. I like a movie when I can relate to the characters, feel what they feel, laugh when they laugh, cry when they cry. My brother watched this movie a few days before I did. I asked him how it was. He very enthusiastically told me that he liked it. I think this is the first time in twenty two years that he's given that sort of feedback on a Hindi movie. So I went with really high expectations. This is a level of expectation that only two movies have measured up to in the last two years. One is Taare Zameen Par and the this is the other one. We really need more people like Aamir Khan in Bollywood.

This movie has an amazing feel good factor to it. It's also wonderfully well written and well directed. I thought that only in fairy tales does one find a knight in shining armour riding on a horse chasing his princess. Well, what do you know? It happens in Aamir Khan's productions as well. Okay, not exactly, but just about. The airport chase and Imran's completely out-of-key rendition of Tera Mujhse Hai Pehle Ka Naata Koi puts this sequence straight into my list of the most memorable proposals ever portrayed in Bollywood movies, along with Madhavan's ruined monument sequence in Rang De Basanti and Kunal Kapoor's broccoli on a fork proposal in Laaga Chunari Mein Daag. I came home with a huge smile on my face on Saturday night, humming Kahin To... to myself. That, by the way, is one of the most amazing songs I've heard in a while. So is Jaane Tu Meri Kya Hai, which, by the way, does not actually feature in the movie. I'll be humming these songs for quite a while now.

Related stuff I wrote earlier:
http://searchforrandomness.blogspot.com/2008/06/whether-you-know-it-or-not.html
http://searchforrandomness.blogspot.com/2008/06/whether-you-know-it-or-not.html#comments